REPRESENTATIVES of all the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel clubs and other interested parties have been invited to a meeting at the Kennel Club Building at Stoneleigh.
It is hoped that there the impasse between the breeders and the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and the Kennel Club will be broken so that the results of scans for syringomyelia (SM) and the chiari-like malformation (CM) can be published.
Negotiations between the BVA, the KC and Cavalier breeders had stalled over the BVA/KC SM/CM scanning scheme. The sticking point is the publication of the screening results. The BVA believes ‘firmly’ that results should be made publicly available.
It is understood that the KC has now sent out invitations to the meeting at Stoneleigh on September 1; points for discussion are the publication of scan results and recognition of scans which have been done already. KC spokesman Caroline Kisko said: “Recognition of scans carried out prior to the scheme will apply to any which fulfils the criteria of the scheme – and there will be a number of those.”
It is believed that representing the KC at the meeting will be KC chairman Prof Steve Dean, KC geneticist Prof Jeff Sampson, General Committee members Frank Kane and Pat Sutton, secretary Mrs Kisko, and Prof Mike Herrtage, dean of Cambridge Veterinary School.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club chairman Sheena Maclaine said her club and others welcomed the opportunity for further discussion with the KC.
“It is important for all that it is seen as a workable scheme and that the uptake of participants will ensure that it is able to provide the data required for the estimated breeding values,” she said. “I’m sure you are aware that very many breeders have now been scanning for some time and at considerable expense. One of the concerns of many of these has been that there may be no acknowledgement of dogs scanned prior to the scheme.”
The BVA is not involved.
“This is a meeting for the KC and breeders,” a spokesman said. “As you know, we have already discussed this issue at length and made a decision at our council. We’ve also made our position clear in public, so those attending the meeting will be aware that the BVA firmly believes that the results of the CM/SM scheme must be available in the public domain to assist breeders in making breeding decisions and to assist puppy buyers in choosing a healthy dog. We look forward to hearing back from the KC after the meeting.”

REPRESENTATIVES of all the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel clubs and other interested parties have been invited to a meeting at the Kennel Club Building at Stoneleigh.
It is hoped that there the impasse between the breeders and the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and the Kennel Club will be broken so that the results of scans for syringomyelia (SM) and the chiari-like malformation (CM) can be published.
Negotiations between the BVA, the KC and Cavalier breeders had stalled over the BVA/KC SM/CM scanning scheme. The sticking point is the publication of the screening results. The BVA believes ‘firmly’ that results should be made publicly available.
It is understood that the KC has now sent out invitations to the meeting at Stoneleigh on September 1; points for discussion are the publication of scan results and recognition of scans which have been done already. KC spokesman Caroline Kisko said: “Recognition of scans carried out prior to the scheme will apply to any which fulfils the criteria of the scheme – and there will be a number of those.”
It is believed that representing the KC at the meeting will be KC chairman Prof Steve Dean, KC geneticist Prof Jeff Sampson, General Committee members Frank Kane and Pat Sutton, secretary Mrs Kisko, and Prof Mike Herrtage, dean of Cambridge Veterinary School.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club chairman Sheena Maclaine said her club and others welcomed the opportunity for further discussion with the KC.
“It is important for all that it is seen as a workable scheme and that the uptake of participants will ensure that it is able to provide the data required for the estimated breeding values,” she said. “I’m sure you are aware that very many breeders have now been scanning for some time and at considerable expense. One of the concerns of many of these has been that there may be no acknowledgement of dogs scanned prior to the scheme.”
The BVA is not involved.
“This is a meeting for the KC and breeders,” a spokesman said. “As you know, we have already discussed this issue at length and made a decision at our council. We’ve also made our position clear in public, so those attending the meeting will be aware that the BVA firmly believes that the results of the CM/SM scheme must be available in the public domain to assist breeders in making breeding decisions and to assist puppy buyers in choosing a healthy dog. We look forward to hearing back from the KC after the meeting.”

The BVA did send an observer and Tania, Carol Fowler and I were invited with some of the other health campaigners.
I think I can say that we were reasonably happy with the outcome.

We are hoping that the KC will put out a statement fairly quickly as there are a lot of half lies and misinformation being put about on other forums.

If there is too much delay I may be driven to write another blog, just to counter some of the ridiculous scaremongering that is going on.